Saturday, October 6, 2012

Building a Rock Wall

We've been working on this rock wall for a few weeks. Its just finish work now, as my father did the heavy lifting with an excavator with me on the ground yelling for him to do impossibly complex movements with a mammoth machine.

I grew up working at his side quite a bit. In fact, when I had my second son I realized that the suburban life we had would have deprived (depraved?) my children of what he had given me. It was so formative and vital for me that I new I had to return somehow to working with my kids nearby - as in watching and helping when possible.

So, being able to build this wall with my father and having my kids at a safe but close distance was, without exaggeration, just what I had longed for. In suburbia we men who love our families really have to fight for that kind of time. (Yes, I am insinuating that if you don't fight for that time you are not properly loving your children) We have to negotiate and plan time down to the minute in order to spend even adequate amounts of time with our family. I commend men that do this, and challenge men that don't to get a detailed calendar and be home more. Tomorrow. The very plain fact is that our economy, culture, neighborhoods, lifestyles do not revolve around the family, but the family revolves around them, making the home where everyone sleeps and little more. But, rural life is just more like this naturally, culturally. We need a cultural shift, and I think it starts with more families on the land, as Kevin Ford at thecatholiclandmovement.com trumpets.

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"It is essential to cultivate and spread a clear ethic that is up to the task of addressing current challenges: Everyone should educate themselves in more wise and responsible consumption; promote personal responsibility, along with the social dimension of rural activities, which are based on perennial values, such as hospitality, solidarity, and the sharing of the toil of labor. More than a few young people have already chosen this path; also many professionals are returning to dedicate themselves to the agricultural enterprise, feeling that they are responding not only to a personal and family need, but also to a 'sign of the times,' to a concrete sensibility for the 'common good.'

"Let us pray to the Virgin Mary that these reflections can serve as a stimulus to the international community, while we give our thanks to God for the fruits of the earth and the work of man."